Recently I visited my cousin and spent some time with her family. While I was staying with them, she told me this story that I had never heard before.
Years ago, when our grandmother was near the end of her life, the family gathered together at the hospital. We came together to spend the last few hours with my grandmother, whom we all loved dearly. I’m sure we all have memories of some of the last words that Granny said to us.
My aunt and my cousin’s youngest daughter shared a very special conversation with Granny. They had an opportunity to spend some time alone with Granny during these final hours.
As they shared some final words with each other, Granny suddenly seemed distracted.
“Oh, and there’s my baby!” Granny said.
My aunt was a little bit confused. “Do you mean Jennifer’s baby, Mother?”
Granny responded firmly, “No! MY baby.”
They both left the room a few minutes later feeling rattled.
Granny had four children who grew into adulthood: my father and my three aunts … but she also had another child—a baby who had only lived for one day after Granny gave birth to him.
We all knew about this baby, William Lee Drake, because the headstone of his grave was near the headstone of my grandfather’s grave in the cemetery where he is buried.
After reflecting on this conversation with Granny, my aunt and my cousin’s daughter realized that Granny must have been seeing into the heavenly realm. God was graciously giving my grandmother a glimpse of the baby she had lost so many years earlier. And soon, they would be reunited!
My cousin told me that her daughter had never believed in God before that day, but after that experience in Granny’s hospital room, her daughter became a believing Christian.
So, in the final hours of my grandmother’s life, Granny was responsible for one more birth—a new birth to compensate her for the baby she lost so many years ago. It was a final gift to my grandmother from the Lord she loved, and Who she would be with very soon!